This study aims to explore the meanings of the Shaolin Monastery, which is a
conglomeration of the Shaolin kung fu, Buddhism, and tourism, as a carrier of Buddhism and Chinese culture in tourism development. Furthermore, it intends to deepen the understanding of the balance between commercialization and sanctity in the context of the monastery. Seven focus group discussions involving 58 Chinese tourism practitioners and educators were conducted to achieve the research objectives. Contentious issues involving the Shaolin Monastery were discussed from the viewpoints of the practitioners and the general public. The participants elaborated on the overcommercialization problems along with their expectations of the Shaolin conventional values. The unbalanced development of the Shaolin Monastery in terms of
commercialization and sanctity engendered significant concerns among the respondents. In their view, the Shaolin Monastery’s heavy reliance on commercialization undermines its religious value and authenticity. Overcommercialization is identified not only as the cause of the negative effects on the atmosphere and sustainability of the Shaolin culture, but also the factor
Based on the results, a balanced religious tourism development model is proposed in Figure 2. The model presents the dilemma of managing religious tourism with the struggles of balancing the commercialization and sanctity of a religious site. Ideally, a religious site should be
maintained at the optimal level of commercialization and sanctity. At this balanced state, the religious site can present its spiritual integrity with the support of tourism to attain financial viability and to promote religion. With the optimal development of religious sites, tourists can experience the spirituality of religion, and the core values of religion are not jeopardized by tourism development. The optimal development of a religious site is a matter of maintaining a balance between religion- and profit-driven management approaches. The former should be the core consideration in managing religious sites. However, the current state of the Shaolin
Monastery suggests otherwise as the profit-driven approach dominates the focus on religion. The high level of commercialization overshadows the sanctity of the religion, which disenchants the monastery to certain extent.
Figure 2. A balanced model of religious tourism development
Previous studies have indicated that religious sites are socially constructed as being sacred (Belhassen, Caton & Stewards, 2008; Bremer, 2006). The participants enumerated several items related to the monastery that deconstructed the sacred sense of the site, including the aggressive pursuit economic profits, the misconduct of monks, and the close proximity between tourist activities and religious sites. These problems echo the assertion of a previous study that tourism- related facilities can damage the religious sense of place (Singh, 1997; Shinde, 2007). Although the participants are not against the tourism facilities in the monastery, they warned that the close distance between the religious site and the tourist activities can reduce the appeal of the
monastery as a sacred Buddhist site. This finding rejects the common notion that
High Low Sanctity Optimal Religion-driven Management Profit-driven Management C o mme rc ia liz atio O p tima l Hi g h
commercialization is merely destructive and negative (Singh, 1997; Shinde, 2007).
Commercialization contributes to the financial income and popularity of the monastery, which are important to sustain the daily operation of the religious site and to promote the religion to a larger audience to increase followers. Therefore, commercialization should be regarded as a means instead of an end in developing religious tourism.
By perceiving authenticity from the socially constructed perspective, the conflict between commercialization and sanctity become less incompatible. By taking a close look at what the participants are against at, the criticism originates from the apparent and direct involvement of the temple in the business of tourism in the forms of the direct solicitation of donation or the close proximity of tourist activities to religious sites. These examples echo Olsen’s (2006) argument that the physical effects of overcrowding destroy reverent and peaceful atmospheres. The monastery should maintain a sacred image of a religion. Similar argument is also highlighted by McKercher & du Cros (2002) wherein the mismanagement of religious tourism sites often reduces perceived authenticity. In line with the suggestion of absolutely abandon tourism
business, indirect involvements are suggested by the respondents for the Shaolin to participate in tourism as confirmed by their description of the alternative managements of other Buddhism temples. The indirect means of collecting donation can meet the financial needs of the temple, as well as avoid creating the feeling to its visitor that such behavior directly conflicts with the Buddhism doctrine. Therefore, commercialization does not destroy the sense of authenticity for a religious site, overcommercialization does.
Some indicators should be developed to identify if the commercialization goes too far on a religious site. In addition to the physical attributes of a religious site, the people representing the religion at the site should also be included in the measurement. In the case of the Shaolin, monks
are one of the key representations of Shaolin culture. Thus, encounters with them are expected by tourists at Shaolin. However, the deviation of monk behaviors from what tourists expect can also jeopardize the authentic image of Shaolin. A further study on identifying the key indicators of overcommercialization on a religious site is important to site management.
To maintain the socially constructed authenticity, deeply exploring its religious cultural backgrounds in seven focus groups is considered necessary. Religious tourism can be sustained in the Shaolin Monastery by restoring its sanctity, reflecting both Buddhist and Chinese values in tourism and promoting the essence of kung fu to tourists. These suggestions from seven focus groups of tourism practitioners also matched the suggestions made in previous studies (Timothy and Olsen, 2006). Sustaining the religion should be the goal of all practices in the development of religious tourism. The monastery’s current tourism management is directed by a profit-driven approach, which is the major cause of the site’s overcommercialization. A religion-driven management approach is implemented to redirect the attention of the monastery to its core values. This approach does not intend to abandon tourism development; rather, tourism development is viewed to be important and beneficial to the monastery to communicate its religious beliefs to a large population. However, if profit-making overshadows religion in the development of religious tourism, then the sanctity and core values of religion, which are the key attractions for tourists, are lost in the process. The ultimate goal of developing religious tourism should be to utilize tourism as a means of strengthening the religion.
Overall, the views of the participants are homogeneous to a certain degree, which itself is an important finding. The discussion nature of the groups and their tourism business management backgrounds are partly attributed to such a homogeneous finding. In the focus group discussion, the participants normally stated their own opinions at the beginning and each provided the
reasons to support their opinions. Through such an idea exchanging process, participants tried to revisit their own opinions by including the opinions of others. The findings from individual interviews may be different from this group discussion because the former can follow individual opinions, whereas the latter enables the idea exchanges and provides spaces to mitigate two contested directions. As the participants highlighted “mean (中庸)” as the central philosophy of Chinese culture, they adjusted their own positions in the group communication. Each group and each group member contributed to discussion on the contestation topic by enriching their own acceptable criteria and possible solutions. The findings presented in this paper are the
accumulated thoughts from each participant. Furthermore, the discussions on the Chinese culture are homogeneous from the public perspectives because of the collective and shared nature of a culture.
Religion and Tourism
In the context of contemporary China, the complex separation of secular tourism from spiritual tourism has been indicated because the former is closely bound to its political, social, and economic conditions (Özkan, 2013). Accordingly, Chinese visitors to religious heritage sites are highly aware of the rapid and safe means of transportation, commercialization,
secularization, and government intervention in restoring and promoting both the national and local identities. The religious tourism sites in China are often promoted to fulfill spiritual needs and to educate visitors about patriotism and China’s national history (Özkan, 2013).
Given the emergence of religious tourism, several discussions of pilgrimage and religion tourism have been initiated in the past literature. Several scholars (Cohen, 2003; Rinschede, 1988; Smith, 1992) have suggested that pilgrimage and religion tourism are at the two ends of a continuum, with the former referring to traveling to religious destinations primarily for religious
pursuits and the latter pertaining to traveling to religious sites principally for personal pleasure. Regardless of the category to which tourists belong, holy experiences are expected by all of the concerned travelling parties, including pilgrims, tourists, and those in between (Prahalad & Haamel, 1990). Such holy experiences are explained in Olsen’s (2013) study as expected emotional experience and in Shackley’s (2005) research as spiritual needs. Therefore, retaining the religious charm of the Shaolin Monastery is vital to sustain its tourism development.
Olsen (2003) mentioned that not every religious tourism site is considered sacred. The participants view the Shaolin Monastery as one such site despite its potential to regain its charm. This monastery is widely believed to be the most famous Buddhist temple in the world (Shahar, 2008). Its popularity can help broadcast the Buddhist message and values to a broad community via tourism. Thus, tourism is a channel of communication between religious sites and the interested public. Although commercialization may be inevitable in tourism development, overcommercialization should be avoided and the sanctity of the religious site should be protected. Doing so is necessary to sustain tourism and to promote the ultimate purpose of developing tourism at a religious site.
Religion and Culture
The analysis of the meanings of the Shaolin Monastery as a carrier of Chinese culture indicated that its religious values share the same core values as Chinese Confucianism, particularly the “moderate” philosophy. The Shaolin Monastery is evidently regarded as a representative of Chinese culture. This finding echoes previous studies that have examined the appeal of the monastery (Morris, 2004; Shahar, 2008). The same finding also confirmed the finding of Andriotis (2009), in which contemporary pilgrimage experiences include the elements of culture, secularity, nature, and religious devotion. China’s religious tourism has seldom been
the focus of studies in the tourism and hospitality literature. Research on the Shaolin Monastery is even scarce, which contradicts its popularity among the general public.
The focus group discussions reflected that Shaolin tourism cannot depart from the broad Chinese cultural context because Shaolin is a component of the national culture and its
presentation in tourism should reflect core Chinese values. A similar association between religion and general culture was also observed in the studies of Shackley (2005) and Özkan (2013), in which the discussion of religious issues is closely linked to culture. In the case of the Shaolin Monastery, the unconventional or deviant behaviors related to it are unacceptable to the participants who value the “moderate” Confucian philosophy. However, the integration of Chinese culture in the development of religious tourism remains unexplored. Although past literature have argued that religion and tourism are interlinked because the proper use of religious resources in tourism development can benefit both parties (Ambrósio, 2007;
Kaszowski, 2000; Stausberg, 2011); furthermore, the discussion of religion, culture, and tourism in the same context has not been established.
In line with the literature, the continuity of religion is another major concern of the participants (Levi & Kocher, 2009; Nolan & Nolan, 1992). Knowledge on Buddhism and its promotion to both believers and tourist groups are suggested. Shackley (2002) indicated that this lack of spiritual depth in religious tourism sites often results in leisure tourists outnumbering worshippers. As a religion, Buddhism is based on achieving a state of enlightened consciousness for which the achievement of wisdom is an essential feature (Timothy & Olsen, 2006).
Consistent with this concept, sufficient knowledge of Buddhism and dedicated behaviors of both the abbots and monks are expected. Buddhist practitioners often visit the temple multiple times a year, whereas leisure tourists normally visit the temple only once; hence, visitor motivations for
religious sites tend to be complex and are often not worship-related (Hughes et al., 2013;
Shackley, 2005). Therefore, the respondents suggested exerting more marketing efforts to attract religious believers and to cautiously draw sightseeing tourists.
Religion and Kung Fu
Shahar (2008) indicated that the Shaolin Monastery’s connection to kung fu, a world- famous Chinese fighting technique, is the major reason for Shaolin’s popularity. Since the early 1960s, the temple has been portrayed in many movies as a hub for traditional martial arts. Practiced in China since the first century BC, similar fighting techniques continue to have important religious, health-related, and political roles in Chinese society (Shahar, 2008).
Although closely related to Buddhism, kung fu is reported (Groups 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7) to be a more important tourist attraction than religion relative to the Shaolin Monastery.
Kung fu itself is considered to have become a multifaceted concept within the temple, from “health and well-being to theatrical performance, from a competitive sport to religious self- cultivation, from self-defense to armed rebellion” (Shahar, 2008, p. 202). Kung fu’s connections to Buddhism and Chinese philosophies have been vividly reflected in the dialogues. Although kung fu has become a salient attribute of Shaolin tourism, the promotion of religious beliefs and Chinese values in kung fu is lacking. The current practice is to heavily focus on promoting the visual and entertainment values of kung fu without communicating its essence to tourists. In contrast to the monastery, kung fu is an active form of tourism, which is often regarded by visitors as interesting and enjoyable. Promoting the Buddhist and Chinese values through kung fu is more likely to be effective in attracting people’s attention.
CONCLUSION
dilemma involving the commercialization and sanctity of Shaolin tourism. Sustaining the religion is regarded as the key to all tourism practices. The connections of religion to tourism, culture, and kung fu are identified to facilitate the conceptual understanding of religious tourism development in China and the practical implications of the study. The management suggestions can be modified to suit the nature and context of other religious sites. The findings from previous studies, such as the overarching of culture and religion (Andriotis, 2009), highly valued sacred experience (Prahalad & Haamel, 1990; Singh, 1997; Shinde, 2007), and continuity of religion (Levi & Kocher, 2009; Nolan & Nolan, 1992), have also been noted in the Chinese Buddhism context. Connecting these findings in a country where only a few studies on the issues related to religious tourism have been conducted contributes to international scholarship. This study is not against commercialization and tourism development at a religious site; however, we advocate a religious-centered management approach when developing tourism at religious sites.
This study includes several limitations. First, the focus group discussions are only audio- recorded. Thus, linking the quotes with the particular contributor is impossible despite the participants’ rich industry experience that may guide them in explaining their views. Video recording is clearly preferred in future research. Second, this study is firmly embedded in the context of the Shaolin Monastery and the related cultural and religious principles. A study in another context concerning the same topic may yield different results.
Further research can investigate the implication of the results of this study for the specific management of the monastery. The results of this study can be compared with those on other religious sites in other contexts. Our results also help understand whether differences in sites related to their religious affiliation exist. A comparison between Christian, Islamic, and Buddhist sites is particularly interesting as well. Finally, further studies can investigate the perception of
the Shaolin Monastery site from a Western perspective. The Chinese respondents frequently mentioned that the Shaolin Monastery is famous for the related movies and the kung fu-inspired pop culture in the West. Investigating this issue can better explain the issue of religious tourism from a cross-cultural scale.
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